Syriac Catholic Patriarch: West Is an Accomplice

“If your dear readers in the West consider that the countries where they live are democratic countries, then they have to raise their voices and tell their governments: You are participating in a genocide of minorities, especially the Christian minority. Because genocide doesn’t only mean killing all the members of a community, but also forcing them to flee their country to all parts of the world, uprooting them from the homeland of their ancestors, and destroying a culture and society and religious tradition. For we are “sui iuris” Churches, that is, endowed with our history, even though we are not very large. This is horrendous.

“So your readers need to understand that they should not accept what the mass media and politicians abusing their power say. It is no longer acceptable nor permissible to close one’s eyes before the atrocities that are being allowed in the 21st century. Seeing this indifference saddens us and makes us suffer even more.

Should Putin’s intervention therefore be acknowledged?

“The Russians have been much more serious about helping Syria, which has been divided and battered for so long. It’s true, when I went to Palmyra, it was the Russians who were defending the archaeological sites. What Russia did only in the month of September is worth much more that everything the West has done in the last two years.

“We have another example of this in Iraq which, according to the Americans and Westerners, is a country headed toward democracy. Then why don’t they help it seriously to put an end to this Daesh, to the Islamic State? They have been talking for years about stopping or eliminating this caliphate of terror. To tell the truth, the rampant opportunism that exists is now clear. And only we defenseless Christians are caught between the Daesh and Western opportunism.